Firearm.



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

THEODOBE H. GKHOFF, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO, ASSIONOR, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, T0 AUTO-OBDNANCECORPOBATION, OF NEW YORK, lil'. Y., A CORIOBATION OF NEW YORK.

FIREAPM.

Y Specification at Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 12, 1919.

To all 'whom it may concern:

Be it 4known that I, Tiinononr. H. EICK# Herr, a citizen of the United States of America, and resident of Cleveland, in the county of Cuyahoga and State of Ohio, have invented new' and useful-Improvements in Firearms, of which the following 'is a specification.

This invention relates to firearms and more particularly to the tiring members and associated mechanism of firearms.

Firing members for pistols, nitles, and other types of firearms employing cartridges, usually comprise elongate pins reciprocatably mounted in the breech block or bolt so as to be driven forward by hammer mechanism into engagement with the rimer cap of a cartridge in the tiring chamlier. These pins are loosely mounted in the bolt and it frequently happens that upon throwing the bolt into forward breech-closing position the momentum of the Iii-ing pin created by the forward movement of the bolt carries the firing pin into engagement with the primer cap of the cartridge in the firing chamber result-ing in a premature firing of the cartridge 'lhis is y orticularly likely to happen in automatic and Semiautomatic guns where the breech block or `breech closure is thrown forward with considerable force and rapiditg.. l\l(i1'eovei, the diliicnlty .is not limited to reciprocatory firing pins, but is incident. to all firing meinbers arranged so that their momentum tends to carry them into firing position when the bolt is moved into forward position.

l't is the principal object of the present invention to overcome the aforesaid dilliculties and to provide a firing member whose forward momentum does not tend to cari' it into firing osit-ion. Another object is to provide a. ring pin of such chiracter that it, can be disposed at the forward end of the. -breech bolt or other breech closure in a restricted space and in such nrnner that it may be actuated from one side of the breech closure by a hammer or other suitable mechanism.

The invention comprises a. firing member movably mounted on the breech block of a gun so as not to be thrown into firing position b its momentum when the breech block reaches its forward position. The firing member is arranged to be oscillated into and out of firing position end is preferably mounted to oscillate about a shaft, trunnions, orsmilar pivot. The means for,pivota,ll

mounting the firinrr member on the breec 1 closure 1s arranged to engage the member either in the plane of the center of gravity of 'the member or between this plane .and the plane of the firing point of the member. Thus when the iiringmember is arranged with its firing 'point at or near its upper end the point or line of engagement between the firing member and breech block is disposed at or abovethc lor ritudinal plane passingthrough the center gravity of the firing member.

In the accompanying drawings- Figure l is a side elevation of a portion o fa rifle with parts broken away and sectined 'showing one embodiment of my invention in operative position therein; L fftFig. 2 is a side elevation on a larger scale of the firing member in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a pers iective view of the forward end of the ri' e bolt showing the firing member mounted therein; Fig, 4 is a view similar to Fig. 3 showinfr le. modified form of my invention; and

fig. 5 is a vertical longitudinal central section of Fig. 4L. showing the modified form of locking member in side elevation.

The firearm chosen for the purpose of illustrating myiinvention comprises a rifle having a stock 12 barrel 2, breech block or bolt 3, and a firing chamber 4, adapted to receive a cartridge 5. I

The embodiment. of my improved firing member illustrated in Figs. 1, 2 and 3 comprises a segmental member 6 having a firing point 8 at one end, a hammer engaging head 9 at its other end, and an opt-.ning 10 at its center for pivotally supporting the member. The bolt 3 is provided with a. recess 11 at its forward end to receive the tiring member, a screw 12 extenda across the recess through the opening 10 pivotally to support the tiring member in the recess.

Thus the firing member is free to oscillate about the: screw 1'2- which constitutes a bear ing. Owing to the fact that the opening 10 is disposed near the forward end of the firing mem-ber the weight of the lnember tends tomovc thc member in a clorkwise direction (Figs. 1 and 2) away from the cartridge in the firing chamber. The haminer.13 controlled Hf.' the trigger 14 through the medium of suitable mechanism is dis posed beneath the hca'd 9 on thefiring meniber so that when it is caused to strike upwardly against the head 9 the firing member is rotated in a counter-clockwise direction (Figs, l. and 2). The iri member-.is so positioned in the forward en that the point 8 will e the. primer cap of a cartridge in the firing chamber when the firing member is rotated in a counterelockwise direction.

A cardinal feature of the present invention consists in so mounting the firing member that its momentum will not tend to throw it into'irin position when the' breech bolt -is thrown. frwardly, and when the firin member is pivotally supported on an axis low the firing point this result attained by disposing the center of avity of the firing member either in the p ane.of the axis of the firing member which is arallel to the direction of travel of the reech bolt or at a `peint below this plane, Thus in Fig. 2, the .line c g represents the plane of the center of gravity of the firing member and the-line a represents the plane of the pivotal axis of. the member.

In order to have the center of gravity fall near the bottom of the firing member the firin membermay be dared laterally out war y from to to bottom as shown in Fig. 3. When the hring member is 4flared outwardly in this manner the recess 11 in the.

bolt is preferably made wider at the bottom than at `the top as shown in Fig. 3.

When the center of gravity is isposed below the longitudinal p ane containing'the axis of the firing member, the momentum of the Iirin member does not tend to throw the mem r into firing position when the breech bolt is moved forwardly. 0n the contrary, when the breech bolt is suddenly stopped at the forward end of its forward movement, the inertia of the firing member tends to rotate the tiring member away from the cartridge in the lirm chamber. While the firing member may e prevented from being thrown into firing posit-ion by locating the center of rravity of the member in the plane of the pivotal axis of themember w t below this plane so as more certainly to avoid a premature discharge and also so as to cause the irin member to move into retracted position w ien the bolt reaches its forward osition if the firing member has not alrea y assumed this position.

With the firing member mounted as illustrated in Figs. 1 to/3, it is obvious that gravity tends to move the member into retraeted position. However, in certain aspects of the invcntion the operation of the firing member may beyrendered independent of the action of gravity. For `example, the firing member may be mounted in a recess entering the bolt at oxie`si`de so as to oscillate of the bolti-t'fo'n of the center of Vgravity on the side refer to locate the center of gravity some- Y 4stood that the firing member might be about a vertical axis in which ease gravity has .no effect on theli'ring member. when the un is in the normal horizontal. position. lowever, when the firing member is mounted ,toigrotate about'a vertical axis the disposiofthe longitudinal plane of the axis o the member opposite to the ring point 8 will cause the point to move away from the cartridge when the breech bolt 4reaches its forward sition.

As urther illustrating the fact that the principle of the. present invention may be utilized in various ways, it is to be undermounted inthe forward end-o f the bolt upside downl with respeetto the osition illustrated in Figs. 1 to 3, inw 'ch case the h am'mer mechanism would be disposed above instead of below the bolt, and the center of gravity would be located in or above the plane containing the pivotal axis of the firing member which' is dis osed in alrallelism with the line of trave ofthe ot.'-

In Figs. 4 and 5 I havel illustrated a modification of my invention in which the firing member' is inclosed in a recess 11' in the forward end of a bolt 3 by an angular member 15 so as :to oscillate to and fro into 95 pose I have shown machine screws 16. An 100 opening 1T is left at the top of the recess l1 to permit the tiring point 8 of the firing member to envage the primer cap of the cartridge in tile ring chamber, and an opcnixm 1S is left at the rear end of the re- 105 cess 11 to permit the hammer head 9 of the firing member to project therethrough.

lVhile the iring member may be loosely mounted in the recess in the forward end of the breach bolt in a number of ways aceord- 1w ing to the present invention, I prefer to arrange the member as follows: 'lhe Jivotal axis of the firing member is disposed at 19 and the central portion v20 is made concentrie with this axis. portion 21 of the member an the surface 22 of the recess with which the segmental portion contacts are also made concentric with the axis 19. Thus when the firing member 6' .is oscillated to and fro the segm tion slides along the surface 22 and the circular portion 20 rotates against the two walls of the member 15, the motion being 4purely rotative `about the pivotal axis 19. Owing to the fact that. the portion`20 of 125 center of gravity of the firing niember is 1:30

The uxper segmental 1 15 ental por- 12o posed is a face of the opening 10 bears a -therefore disposed in or below this plane according to the present invention.

This invention is particularly intended to be employed in connection with apparatus such as illustrated in the ap lication of myself` and Oscar V. Pa ne, gr. No. 203,887, filed November 26, 191 in which means iorf` automatically. actuating the bolt and locking it in firm position is associated with the rear end o the bolt in such manner as to render it impractical to employ the ordinary reci rocatory firing` pin extending longitudina ly throu h the bolt.

It will be observ that injboth modifications of my invention herein disclosed, a bearin engages a forwardly directed face' of the firing member intermediate the ends of the firing member and the bearing is disline which does not pass outside the center of mass of the iring member, whereby the firing member is retained in retracted position by its o wn inertia when the breech block is moved into,iring position. This is accomplished by the division of the inertia of the firing member into two components which counteract each other, the component tending to move the firing member from firing position being at least equal to the component tending to move the firing member into firing position. Thus in Figs. 1 to 3, where the bearingl for the firing mem ber comprises a pin, the forwardly directed ainst the pin when the breech closure is s ot forward; and, owin to the fact that the inertia of the portion o the firing member below the cen ter of this face is greater than that of the ortion above this center, the firing member 1s prevented by its own inertia from being thrown into firing position. In Figs 4 and 5 the correspondlnglbearin for the firing member is the front wall o the member 15 and this bearing en ages the forwardly direct/ed face 23' of t e ring member at a point at or above the center of mass of the firing member so Ahat'the firing member is prevented by its own' inertia from being thrown into firing position when the boit is shot forward.

What I claim is:

1. In a gun having a breech block mounted behind the firing chamber to move to and from the firing chamber, the combination of a firing'member, and means for mounting the firing member on the breech block so that it may be cscillated into and out of firing position, said member in line wit its center of gravity or on the side of its center of gravity opposite to the firin point of the member so that the nleans engaging the firing tiring mem er is not thrown into firing position by its momentum when the breech block reaches its forward position.

2. In a gun having a breech block mounted behind the firing chamber to move to and from the firing chamber, the combination of an oscillatory firing member having a firing point at its upper end, and means for supporting the firing member on the breech block so as to be oscillated into and out of firing position, the supporting means being arranged to engage the firing member at or above its center of gravity so that the firing member is not thrown mto firing position by its momentum when the breech block reaches its forward position.

3. In a gun having a breech block mounted behind the firing chamber`- to move to and from the irin chamber, the combination of a firing mem r, and means for pivotall supporting the vtiring member on the breec block, the pivotal axis of the firing member being disposed between the firing point and center of gravity of the ring member so that the tiring member is not thrown into firing position by its momentum 'when the breech block reaches its forward position.

4. In a gun having a breech block mounted behind the firing chamber to move to and from the irin chamber, the combination of a bell-crank ring member having a firing point at one end and a hammer engaging head at the other end and means for pivotally supporting the firing member between its firing oint and its center of gravity so that the ring member is not thrown into iring position b its momentum when the breech block reac es its forward position.

Signed by me at Cleveland, Ohio, this eleventh day of March, 1918.

'rnnononn n. nIoKHoFF. 

